Advanced Save and Continue 1.0.39 – for Gravity Forms

Advanced Save and Continue is for forms people don’t finish in one sitting: quotes, applications, multi-step onboarding, anything where abandonment hurts. I use it when Gravity Forms’ default “Save and Continue” feels too barebones and the client wants a smoother “pause → resume later” flow (often with email reminders and less user friction).

If your forms are short and you don’t care about partial leads, this is extra moving parts. But on long multi-page forms, it pays for itself fast.

What it actually changes in Gravity Forms

Mechanically, it sits on top of Gravity Forms’ normal submission pipeline and adds a parallel path: partial entries + a resume token.

In a typical setup I’ve seen:

• Partial data is saved into Gravity Forms’ own entry storage (tables differ by GF version: newer installs use wp_gf_entry/meta; older use wp_rg_lead/detail). The important bit: it’s a real entry record, just not finalized like a completed submission.
• The “continue later” link is driven by a token (usually carried in the URL as a query arg). That token maps back to the partial entry and repopulates the form on load.
• Frontend behavior relies on Gravity Forms scripts (conditional logic, multi-page navigation, AJAX submit) plus the add-on’s script. If those scripts load late or get merged badly, autosave/resume becomes flaky.
• Settings typically live in the WP admin under Forms → Settings or per-form settings (stored in wp_options and form meta). Your form fields are still stored in the GF form definition; the plugin doesn’t rewrite your form, it just intercepts save/resume.

What’s editable vs not:

• Editable: which forms enable save/continue, token expiry, whether to email resume links, messaging/text, and sometimes autosave cadence.
• Not really editable: the resume protocol itself (token format, how it rehydrates fields). If you need custom “save rules” (skip certain fields, map to CRM mid-way), you’re in hook/filter territory.

Where it usually breaks (and the fixes that don’t waste time)

Resume link opens, but the form is empty

Root causes I see:

• A redirect strips query parameters (security plugin “clean URLs”, some SEO canonical redirect, language redirect).
• Cache served a stale version of the form page that doesn’t execute the resume logic.

Fix I apply:

• Exclude the form page from cache (page cache + edge cache). If it’s a “single page for all forms”, exclude that URL.
• If you run redirect/canonical tools, allowlist the resume query arg so it isn’t removed.
• DevTools → Network: reload the resume URL and confirm the HTML response is not coming from a full-page cache (look at response headers like x-cache / cf-cache-status).

Autosave / Save button does nothing (or works “randomly”)

Root cause: JS optimization breaks Gravity Forms’ frontend scripts order.

Fix:

• In your optimization plugin, don’t delay/defer these on pages with the form:
  • jquery-core
  • Gravity Forms frontend/conditional logic scripts (commonly handled under script handles like gform_gravityforms, gform_conditional_logic)
• DevTools → Console: if you see gform is not defined / jQuery is not defined, stop tuning and exclude the page from “Delay JS” entirely. It’s faster.

Partial entries exist in admin, but email resume links never arrive

Root cause: not the plugin. It’s mail delivery.

Fix:

• Send via SMTP: WP Mail SMTP → Setup (or your preferred SMTP plugin).
• Check your mail logs (WP Mail SMTP has them) and confirm the message is generated, then troubleshoot the mail provider.

Activation + updates (plain language)

This plugin usually runs without a key, but without activation you commonly lose auto-updates and vendor support (and sometimes premium features depending on the build). My copy is activated and fully working (personally verified), so you’re not blocked by licensing screens.

Manual update path:

• Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin (ZIP) or replace via FTP/SFTP.
• Any edits inside the plugin folder get overwritten on update. If you need custom behavior, I wire it via Gravity Forms hooks in a small custom plugin / mu-plugin, not by editing vendor files.

You can find detailed instructions on how to update a theme or plugin on this page.

Practical FAQ (things devs actually ask)